Christmas Stocking Update

The family for whom I stitched 3 stockings earlier this year have hung them up on display in their home and they look great! I just hope they get filled with lots of goodies for each of them...

It's nice to see my work being used all the way over in England!

Happy Stitching,
Kerrie

Cross Stitch in the Library

For those regular readers, you'll know my drama about getting permission to hang the 8 Heartfelt Series designs in my library at work. Well, still no progress on that decision yet - the drama is about putting holes in walls for hooks. I know there are those stick on hooks, but the framer warned against using those as the weight of the pictures can get too much and if they come unstuck, they'll be destroyed. So I want proper in the wall hooks to hang them on...

But in the meantime, I CAN hang pictures on the ends of the rows of shelving - I have authority over those! So today I hung 3 designs that I used to have hanging in our old library before we moved. Two of them I can see from my desk, the third is down the back of the library but I'll put them on rotation so I don't get bored!

O Holy Night (completed 2014) and Inspirational ABC (2008) next to 23rd Psalm (2011).
Please ignore the junk in front of the second picture - I have a number of donations to sort through! My library is not usually so untidy.

Last night's new show on TV was 'Forever' which I really liked. Will definitely be watching it weekly. It seems to be the season for all the new shows (new to Australia, anyway) starting, so there's something good on every night.

Happy Stitching,
Kerrie

Movies

Here are the little movies I made for my recently completed projects:

The next plastic canvas ornament I'm doing is called Hope and it should be finished in the next couple of days...

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

Warm Hearts Ornament & O Holy Night Framing

These last few days, I've stitched another Christmas ornament on plastic canvas - Warm Hearts. I started it on Thursday night, stitched for most of Friday and finished it off tonight. Friday was a public holiday in Australia for ANZAC Day - I almost think this is more of an Australian holiday than Australia Day (Jan 26). It commemorates the First World War battle fought at Gallipoli. Next year is the 100th anniversary of the first landing. There are numerous events and services during the day, but personally, I think one of the most moving things is at the Collingwood vs Essendon AFL football match, played on ANZAC day since the 1990s. Before the match, they have a ceremony and a minute of silence in remembrance - 90,000+ people in the crowd and you could hear a pin drop - it is very moving.

Here is the finished ornament (since it only took 2 days, there wasn't much point in doing progress shots)

I'll put some backing card on it tomorrow and some cord to hang it with.

And this morning I picked up O Holy Night from the framers. I am very pleased with the result and it should match the others from this set quite well.

I've got another ornament pattern which I picked up from The Fox Collection when I visited the shop in Sydney earlier this year. I think I might do that before I start something a little more involved...

I've also done little movies of O Holy Night and Prayer Changes Things which I will post next week.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #71

I made it to the craft store last night and got 3 skeins of black so I won't run out again for a long time (hopefully)!

This is now completely finished and ready for framing. I hope to take it on the weekend.

 

I am so pleased with the colours - so vibrant. Can't wait to get it on my wall...

 

I usually always follow patterns exactly, never making my own adjustments, but this time, I put a smile on the angel's face. I don't think I trust myself enough not to stuff up something.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #70 & Prayer Changes Things #2

Ta Da! I'm finished - except for about 10 back stitches! Would you believe it, I ran out of black with 2 little leaves left under Alleluia! I have a dentist appt tonight but after that I'm going straight to the craft shop for more black DMC supplies.

The 2 leaves under the A need outlining, and I've decided I'm going to put in a smile on the angels face in the bottom right corner. There's also some dividers in the large star as well. I probably only need another 50cm length of black... oh well. The beads and stars were surprisingly quick to stitch on - I thought they'd take me much longer and be much more fiddly. If I get a chance, I might even take it to the framers this weekend! I am very pleased with it - it is very vibrant and just makes you happy to look at it.

Since the above was fairly quick to finish, I couldn't sit around for an hour or so with nothing in my hands, so I picked up Prayer Changes Things and back-stitched around the word Prayer.

 

Apologies for the big shadow over the design...

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #69

Oh so close to being finished with the stitching...

 

There is only one shade of green that I've run out of left to be done in the leaves around the Alleluia. Luckily, I checked my stash and I had some, but it was 10.30pm so I went to bed before I stuffed it up from being too tired.

I have used a whole extra skein of black for the back-stitching on top of what was provided. I've run out of a shade of the green and the gold metallic thread also ran out. I started the A with it, and got half way through when I realised I had none left. Luckily, I had some gold metallic in my stash as well, but it was a different gold so I had to pull out what I'd done and do the whole letter A in my gold thread.

Tonight I should finish the stitching and possibly get started on the beads and little gold stars that are scattered throughout the design - so exciting!! It should be done by the end of the weekend - woo hoo!!

Once framed, this design will decorate my theological library with the other two from the same series. My next project will be to continue with the 'Prayer Changes Things' that I started whilst on our holiday in Tasmania a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #68

The green angel is almost done now... it's getting exciting!

And I've booked into my friend's craft weekend coming up in September... If you'd rather be "Busy Crafting", why not consider coming along to the CRAFT WEEKEND especially if you're from Australia, or planning to be in Australia at the time...it would be great to have you along and meet you in person...

And if you''ve got a minute, please vote for my library by clicking here - THANKS!!

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #67

Hope everyone had a great weekend. We went to a 7yr old birthday party which was fun and then the football, which wasn't so much fun (we lost)

Now the green angel is taking shape... not much more stitching to do now! The big A is to be done in the gold metallic thread - I don't think I'm alone when I say I'm not looking forward to that so much... why must they make metallics so difficult to work with?

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #66

Red angel is taking shape. Just got her back-stitching to do now.

Have a great weekend everyone - I am so glad it is here!

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #65

The red angel is coming along nicely and I'm starting to get excited about finishing this design. I think I could have it done (stitching, beading & stars attached) by Easter - that's definitely my goal.

I took Clarence to the dog park for a walk last night - his first since his operation. I think he was so excited to be back there, mixing with the other dogs, sniffing all the trees. It was so cute to watch. They all rushed up to see him like they had missed him (I know, it was probably more because there was another bottom to sniff!)

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #64

Slowly, the A block is getting filled in. I actually did a little more stitching after I took this photo, so the red angel is really taking shape now.

Above is the Christmas pattern booklet I purchased from the cross-stitch shop in Hobart whilst in Tasmania last week. It has instructions in 7 different languages! I don't think I'll be making any of the table cloths or serviettes, but I can see myself turning the little Christmas pictures into ornaments or possibly cards.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #63 & Clarence Update

Last night I made a good start on the top banner. The letter A is in this block with 2 angels. I just love the colours in this design - so vibrant! Can't wait to get it finished, framed and hanging on the wall with my other 2 from this series...

Clarence had his staples removed last night which wasn't as painful as I thought it might be. The big drama was getting him to lie on his side for the vet to access his belly. Once we managed that, it only took 3 of us to hold him down while the vet removed the staples - he actually used something that looked exactly like a staple remover! Clarence didn't flinch though, so it mustn't have hurt much at all which is good. Now he is completely back to normal and we can do all the things we used to do - he is dying to go for a walk, we haven't been able to take him out for long walks since the operation but now we can. And we have the pathology results back - the mass removed with his spleen is not cancer which is a huge relief. They don't know exactly what it is or what caused it, but it's not cancer so that's all I care about. Hopefully we'll have Clarence around for some time longer before we have to go through anything like that again... Thank you to everyone for your kind words and best wishes for Clarence.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #61

The Z block stitching is finished, just the back-stitching to go then it's onto the top banner.

So looking forward to our trip across the seas tonight on the Spirit of Tasmania - I am so much in need of a break; I'm ready to switch my brain off for a week!

Until I can post something from Tasmania...

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #60 & Tasmania Stitching

 

Yesterday, we went to the F1 Australian Grand Prix which was a fun day, although I did get a bit sunburnt so my arms are a bit warm! Clarence's blood test also showed that his levels are now stable, so no more vet visits required until he has the staples removed on Monday 24th March - yay!

In cross-stitching news, I continued with the Z block. I think I'm missing an update photo or two as I didn't get all of this done in 1 night... Not long before I finish this and can then start on the banner across the top, then the beads and little stars which are all over the design.

And next week, I'm going to break my own rule of only stitching one project at a time to stitch another while we are on holidays. Thankfully, Clarence has recovered well enough to be able to stay with Cheese, his best friend, for the week, and we can go on our planned holiday. We were contemplating cancelling it, but we are relieved we don't have to now. We are going to Tasmania - taking our own car across on the Spirit of Tasmania boat Monday night and driving around then coming back again on Saturday night - I can't wait. I missed out on my relaxing long weekend because of Clarence so I am really hanging out for this break now! My husband is a bit of a whiskey lover and there are plenty of distilleries in Tasmania that we plan on visiting (and sampling of course!). And there's even a cross-stitch shop I've found in Hobart so I'm going to visit there. [For international readers, Tasmania is a small island state of Australia with heaps of history and beautiful scenery.] I'm taking my computer so I should be able to update what we've been doing and my stitching progress as we go. The chosen kit will be a surprise, but it will be one of these ones:

I've purchased this Heartfelt series to stitch for my new library at work and thought I'd get started on one of them while I'm away. You'll have to tune in next week to see which one I've selected.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy NIght #59

The X block was finished last night. Now it looks like I've only got one block left but that is not the case - there is a big banner thing across the top plus a lot of little beads and gold stars to be stitched throughout the design as well. Still quite a bit of stitching to be done on this one yet...

No news about Clarence today - no issues or problems - yay! We do have another blood test scheduled for tomorrow to make sure his levels are stable, but after that, we won't be going back to the vet's until the following week to get the staples removed... fingers crossed!! As you can imagine, this has been a VERY expensive week for us. I might even have to hold off making any more stitching purchases for a little while... maybe...

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #58

The X block is almost done - one more wing on the angel and then the back-stitching. I hadn't noticed it before, but from this picture it looks like the angel is playing a harp or something similar - nice!

We were back at the vet's again last night and this morning with Clarence - last night for a check up and blood test; this morning to redo the blood test to check the results as one of his levels of something was down. We find out later today. Hopefully it was a false result - I can't take much more of this stress... and we're supposed to be away next week so he needs to be well enough to stay with friends.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #57

Made some more progress on the X block last night.

Clarence is continuing to recover well. We have a vet appointment tonight for a check-up so hopefully he will get a good report. I might not get much stitching done, depending on what time we get home...

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #56 & Clarence Update #3

Over the last few nights, I've managed to finish off the W block and get started on the X block. I did have a bit of a drama on the W block - I did the border down the left-hand side with only one row of gold instead of 2 so the block was stitch one stitch to the left too many. Rather then pulling out the whole block, I just pulled out 1 row and stitched in the gold and then added a row on the right-hand side to fill in the space. I don't think it is noticeable so if I hand't told you, you'd never have known. I guess that's what can happen when your mind is elsewhere as mine has been this week with Clarence's dramas.

He is continuing to recover fairly well and I am glad it has been a long weekend so we've been able to be with him for 3 days instead of the normal weekend two. The big test will be tomorrow when we both go back to work and he is left alone all day - I don't think it will be a problem, he usually sleeps most of the day anyway. We go back to the vet tomorrow night for a check-up, but we won't find out about the type of lump for about a week.

He has a sock on his foot to stop his nails getting at the staples when he tries to scratch - the good thing about him being old is that he can't quite get his back foot up to where he wants to scratch, so the staples should be safe, but just in case... I haven't been able to count the staples, but he has a cut approx 30cm long so it's a pretty decent one. It looks like it is healing well so that is pleasing.

Anyway, thanks to all for your kind thoughts for Clarence. I know this is mostly a cross-stitch blog but I do say in my 'About Me' that other stuff may pop up - and this is what has popped up this week. I was never really a pet person and thought people were crazy for getting so upset when their pets were sick - after all, it's just a dog or cat. Now that we've had Clarence for about 6 years, I can understand it completely - they are part of the family as much as a child - and since we don't have children, he really is our baby.  Hopefully, no more dramas now and I can get back to just recording my stitching progress. Thanks again...

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie

O Holy Night #55

Had to drop poor Clarence (our 12yr old Golden Retriever) off at the vet's this morning so he can have an ultrasound and x-ray - he has an enlarged spleen or liver and they need to find out which one and why. He put the brakes on when being taken out the back - they had to slide him across the floor! Poor baby... hopefully it is nothing serious but we won't find out until later today. He wasn't too happy he didn't get any breakfast!

After we got home last night, I got a little more of the W block done.

Happy Stitching,

Kerrie